You have 4 free articles left this month.
LYNN - The last time St. Mary’s baseball team was on the field - astonishing 682 days ago - the Spartans lifted the Division 2 championship trophy. On Thursday afternoon, the Spartans celebrated again after lifting a 9-0 victory over rival Bishop Fenwick in a Catholic Central League match at Fraser Field.
“We just wanted to get started again and it was a great day to get it started,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana. “The guys were excited, they came out and played well and they were ready to go.”
Junior pitcher Aiven Cabral was the star of the day for the Spartans, allowing only two hits in six innings at work while he did not go any and knocked out 10.
“Aiven picked up right where he left off his freshman year, except now he’s two years older and stronger,” Dana said. “He is a child who only works with the relentless, and he is a baseball player through and through. His hard work really pays off. ”
Tommy Falasca came in to throw the final lap, and allowed no race on a hit with a walk.
Cabral also contributed to the victory in the offensive end, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Deniel Ortiz (0-for-4) also had two RBIs in victory, while Colby Magliozzi (2-for-2) and John Nowicki (0-for-2) each had their own RBI.
But the Spartans also took advantage of the opportunities to score without a hit, and used heavy base running to take extra bases and push over some extra runs.
“The guys were where they were supposed to be and they needed the whole game,” Dana said. “We’re working on things like sacrificing flies and putting extra bases into practice, so it’s positive to see us capitalize like that in the first game.”
For Fenwick, the problem was pitching and poor defense. The Crusaders struck five strokes and lost five more, and errors across the board resulted in seven unearned runs.
“I guess you just have to criticize it for not being on the field for two years,” said Fenwick coach Russell Steeves. “There is no excuse for all the hit batteries and trips, we just have to beat better. You will not win many matches when you give up seven unearned races. ”
The Spartans did not waste time on this, and jumped ahead with three races at the bottom of the first thanks to an RBI single from Cabral, an RBI victim fly from Ortiz and an RBI trip from Nowicki. The lead was extended to 7-0 in the second half, with Ortiz beating in its second run of the match and St. Mary scoring three runs via base run. An RBI single from Magliozzi at the bottom of the third and an RBI single from Cabral at the bottom of the fifth rounded out the score for the Spartans.
Fenwick (0-1) hosts Matignon on Saturday (12) for their home opener.
“We just have to move on from this and find a way to strike better,” Steeves said. “Only two of our children have seen a university course in the last two years, so we will try to build on this and get better on Saturday.”
St. Mary’s (1-0) is back at Fraser for the home game against Archbishop Williams on Saturday (12).
“We’ll just go out and discuss how we can get better every day,” Dana said. “It’s going to be another season with not many days off and dealing with the number of counts and things like that, but we just want to focus on improving ourselves every day.”
St. Mary’s pitcher Aiven Cabral threw six innings and allowed just two hits with 10 strikes in victory over Bishop Fenwick on Thursday. (Item Photo: Julia Hopkins)
Get ItemLive in your inbox
Free news and daily news alerts
More stories from Lynn